Billboard



Nov. 17, 1925- 1,562,140

R. 1.. YBIRD'ET AL BILLBOARD Filed Oct. 1,4. 1924 v 2 Sheetse-Sheet 1 Nov. 17, 1925- 1,562,140

R. L. BlRD ET AL BILLBOARD Filed 001;. 14, 1924 -2 Sheets-Shet 2 latter cleaned in a very convenient and sat- Patented Nov. 17, 1925.

NITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

RICHARD BIRD AND HEBER C. JEX, OF SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH.

BILLBOARD.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, RICHARD L. BIRD and HEBER C. JEX, citizens of the United States, residing at Salt Lake City, in the county of Salt Lake and State of Utah, have invented new and useful Improvements in'Billboards, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to bill-boards on which signs are painted and paper posters are pasted. Such bill-boards are commonly made up of a plurality of duplicate so called poster panels assembled into a complete bill-board.

An important object of the resent invention is to provide a new an improved poster panel which, when assembled with a plurality of duplicate poster panels, will provide a bill-board having a smooth and unobstructed front face entirely free from nail-heads, whereby old posters may be conveniently scraped from the panels and the isfactory manner.

A further object of the invention is to so construct the poster panels that a weather tight joint will be formed between the meeting edges of adjacent panels,.and this object is obtained in a very simple and effective manner and without interfering ith the convenient assemblage and removal of the poster panels.

With these and other objects in view, the present invention consists in the combination and arrangement of parts as will be hereinafter more fully described, illustrated in the accompanying drawings and particularly pointed out in .the appended claims, it of course being understood thatv changes in the form, proportion, size and minor details may be made, within the scope of the claims, without departing from the spirit or sacrificing any of the advantages of the invention.

In the drawings: I

Figure 1 is a front elevation of 'a billboard made up of poster panels embodying the features of the present invention;

Figure 2 is a plan section taken on the line 22 of Figure 1;

Figure 3 is an enlarged detail plan section v taken on the line 3-3 of Figure 1;

Figure 4 is an enlarged vertical sectional view taken on the line 44 of Figure 1;

Figure 5 1s a fragmentary perspective Application filed October 14, 1924. Serial No. 743,626.

View illustrating the manner of assembling adjacent panels;

Figure 6 is a fragmentary perspective view looking at the rear of one of the improved poster panels.

The panel of the present invention may be of any dimensions and is rectangular in shape as best indicated in Figure 6 of the drawings, wherein it will be seen that the panel is of skeleton formation and includes a frame made up of upright side members 1 and cross members connecting the side members 1, two of such cross members being shown in Figure 6 and designated 2 and 3, it of coursebeing understood that there is a. bottom cross member not shown in Figure 6 of the drawings.

The members of the panel frame may be connected in any suitable or preferred manner, and the joints are preferably braced by metallic plates or brackets tconnected to the frame members by nails, screws or other suitable fastenings. Applied to one face of the panel frame is a sheet or plate 5 of metal which entirely covers oneside of the frame and is secured at its top and bottom by means of suitable fastenings 6 driven through the metal plate and into the wooden frame. One longitudinal edge of the metal plate is bent into a flange 7 at substantially right angles to the plane of the sheet 5 and lies in engagement with one edge of the panel frame to which it is secured by suitable fastenings 8. The opposite longitudinal edge portion of the plate stantially right angles to the plate and lying against the adjacent longitudinal edge of the panel frame. The free edge portionv bill-board frame as shown in Figures 1, 2

and 4, wherein it will be seen that this billboard frame includes posts or uprights 12 having their lower ends lanted in the ground or otherwise secure or anchored to a support. The posts 12 are connected by a a 5 is bent into a flange 9 disposed at subplurality of horizontal cross bars such as indicated at 13, 14, and in Figure 4: of

the drawings. 'l his main bill-board. frame may be braced 1n any suitable manner, a portion of a brace being shown at 16 in Fig 'ure 4; of the drawings.

A plurality of the present poster panels are successively applied to the front of the bill-board frame and are secured at their tops and bottoms to the upper and lower stringers or cross members 13 and 15 of the bill-board frame by suitable fastenings 17 driven through the top and bottom cross bars of the panel frames and into the mem bers 13 and. 15. Adjacent panel sections are assembled as best illustrated in Figures 3 and 5, the flange 10 beingat the back of the structure and overlapping and closing the joint between adjacent posterpanels, whereby a weather tight joint is provided and the panels are braced throughout their meeting edges.

After the several panels have been secured in place, a molding 18 is applied at the top, bottom and opposite sides of the bill-board, and'cap strips or box members 19 are suitably secured in place around the molding,

whereby the entire structure is braced and given an attractive and ornamental appearance. It will of course'be understood, as best shown in Figure 4 of the drawings, that the molding 18 covers the heads of the fastenings 17 which secure the poster panels to the bill-board frame and also cover the fastenings 6 employed to secure the metal plates or sheets 5 to the poster panel frames. It will now be understood that the front exposed faces of the poster panels lie in the same plane and constitute the front of the bill-board and onwhich'signs may be paint- 1 ed and paper posters pasted. The edges of successive poster panels come close together and there are no exposed nail-heads on the front faces of the panels, and consequently the panels present a smooth and unobstructed surface for facilitating the operation of scraping off old posters and cleanin the front faces of the panels. The sectiona. fearesales ture of the bill-board of course enables the convenient dismantling as well as setting up of the bill-board, thereby providinga portable bill-board capable of being conveniently set up,taken down and again set up in some other position or locality,

From the foregoing explanation, and by reference to Figures 2 and 3,, it will be understood that the bill-board has a flush front face and is made up of a plurality of dupli-l cat'e poster panels. Furthermore, the flange 10 is transversely straight and enables the convenient assemblage of the panels in edgewise abutted relation.

Vhat is claimed is:

1. A bill-board having a flush front face and made up of a plurality of duplicate poster panels, abutted edge to edge I each panel consisting of a skeleton frame and a metal sheet secured to the frame and having ing from and beyond said edge of the frame at the back thereof and in substantial parallelism with the body of the sheet.

3. A poster panel for bill boards comprising a skeleton frame and a metal sheet extending over one face of the frame and having one edge portion i bent across one edge of the frame and then bent outwardly into a transversely straight flange projecting from and beyond said edge of the frame at the back thereof and in substantial parallelism with the body of the sheet the opposite edge of the metal sheet being bent around the adjacent edge of the frame, and fastenings securing the sheet to peripheral edge portions of the frame. v I

RICHARD L. BIRD.

1 HEBER o. JEX. 

